Fast chargers in Hotels.

[Vostok]

I'll report back on the reality of how things went after the trip. Our route won't have much DC charging available and of that, one NRMA has been out of order for a while. Interesting to see if it gets fixed in time for Easter and afterwards.

Yes, please report back. I don’t know if you read my 3000k road-trip report last year, but about 1000 km of that was without any DC charging options. It all worked out OK but required good planning. You become quite constrained relying on AC only, but to me that was all part of the fun of going off the major routes.

 

[doggy1]

Nice one. How did you go about researching them? Plugshare? I have a feeling there are a lot more places that allow charging that aren't on there. I've also been planning trips for the Anzac weekend and July school holidays but it's hard to find which hotels or accomodation have them.

Combination of Plugshare, hotel/motel websites and places mentioned on forums. Last year we had a motel which kindly let us use an outside 15A power point. Manager's wife parked in the spot to reserve it for us. Charged over night. They refused to accept any payment (they have a large solar system and batteries). I offered to put them on Plugshare and did. They have had further business from us happy customers.

 

[doggy1]

I don’t know if you read my 3000k road-trip report last year

I ALWAYS read your material!!!!

 

[Vostok]

I ALWAYS read your material!!!!

Awww thanks!

 

[RichardV]

Having perused your excellent contributions, I'm now of the mind that 15A, 240V at (say) every second or third car park would be ideal.

I would disagree. It is somewhat site dependant but by offering dedicated networked EV chargers you might often get more charging bang for your site electrical budget.

Take for example a motel with 30 rooms and parking spaces for. With your every third park at 15A which would have to be rated for 100% continuous draw that would be an additional site demand on 10x15A or 36kW.

This may tip a site over its current site limits and maybe they only have, say, 32A left it capacity designed for 100% draw.
Now say you have an integrated networked EV charging system. I am not sure what motel room AirCon loads are rated at for site designs but they will be less that 100%. But say the site has 8kW systems rated for maximum demand of 50%. You can now utilise any spare capacity not used by AirCon or other site loads that had a nominal rated capacity built into the site electrical design that might be unused. This might for example get you up over 40kW of supply you can use as long as it is demand limited when say the AirCon or other is not running at its full capacity. It will make a lot of sense in these situations to trade off of peak evening AirCon demand which has low overnight utilisation to trade for EV charging overnight.

This not only solves a costly electrical site upgrade buy also ongoing increased demand charges that are charged at the peak usage in an given month assuming the motel is large enough to hit this type of commerical power arrangement.

Tesla wall chargers at $750 I think now fit this requirement though I am not sure how much of a cut Tesla takes when you use their billing system of your paid networked AC charging. At $750 per charger and the potential for less electrical upgrades may well make this, or similar from another provider provides an attractive option for a limited electrical budget.

 

[Power Hungry]

I would disagree. It is somewhat site dependant but by offering dedicated networked EV chargers you might often get more charging bang for your site electrical budget.

Take for example a motel with 30 rooms and parking spaces for. With your every third park at 15A which would have to be rated for 100% continuous draw that would be an additional site demand on 10x15A or 36kW.

This may tip a site over its current site limits and maybe they only have, say, 32A left it capacity designed for 100% draw.
Now say you have an integrated networked EV charging system. I am not sure what motel room AirCon loads are rated at for site designs but they will be less that 100%. But say the site has 8kW systems rated for maximum demand of 50%. You can now utilise any spare capacity not used by AirCon or other site loads that had a nominal rated capacity built into the site electrical design that might be unused. This might for example get you up over 40kW of supply you can use as long as it is demand limited when say the AirCon or other is not running at its full capacity. It will make a lot of sense in these situations to trade off of peak evening AirCon demand which has low overnight utilisation to trade for EV charging overnight.

This not only solves a costly electrical site upgrade buy also ongoing increased demand charges that are charged at the peak usage in an given month assuming the motel is large enough to hit this type of commerical power arrangement.

Tesla wall chargers at $750 I think now fit this requirement though I am not sure how much of a cut Tesla takes when you use their billing system of your paid networked AC charging. At $750 per charger and the potential for less electrical upgrades may well make this, or similar from another provider provides an attractive option for a limited electrical budget.

Way above my pay grade I'm afraid.